Mane of Fire
by Ixy
Part II: Storm Clouds
Fluttershy crouched as deep inside the little cave as she could. A squirrel attached itself to her dangling mane and wouldn't let go. The waterfall covering the mouth of the cave roared, covering most of the sound of the fire blazing outside. It's yellow light shining through the falling water made what could be seen of her golden coat light up. But she was streaked with soot from forelock to hoof. The air smelled like heat and wet ashes.
“No, no, my little friend. Play nice with the groundhog,” she said quietly, “Mister lion, you're going to just have to get along. No biting, okay?” Despite all the water the cave was slowly filling with smoke. She coughed as quietly as possible. Her salty tears mixed with water running down from her mane.
Some other sound besides the roaring and crackling made it into the cave from outside. Fluttershy wasn't sure what it was at first. But then she thought she heard her name. Rescuers! “Help,” she said in her tiny voice, “Help please, I'm in here.” The panicky squirrel dangling from her mane probably couldn't hear her clearly, much less someone outside. “Umm, help, please,” she repeated.
Then she heard it more clearly, “Fluttershy!” in a strange hoarse voice. Fluttershy mustered her courage and almost before she knew it had pushed her head through the falling torrent of water. “Over here,” she said quietly, then opened her eyes. At the far edge of the stream she saw a white-hot unicorn with a mane made of flames and great glowing eyes. “Fluttershy!” it shouted at her. It stepped into the pool in front of the waterfall sending up clouds of steam.
“Omigosh omigosh omigosh,” Fluttershy backed against the back of the cave and kicked her forelegs. She could see the light from the thing coming closer to the waterfall. She kicked up small rocks and sent an ermine flying into the falling water. “I-I think… it's death out there,” she said to herself. She grabbed one of the critters under her wing. “M-maybe you can us all now,” she whispered, “I-I know it's a lot to ask.”
Suddenly a head stuck through the wall of water. A glowing horn stuck up out out of a sodden, sooty purple mane with a streak of pink. She shook, sending water flying all around the cave. “Fluttershy!” she shouted, her voice painfully loud in the tiny cave, “What are you doing here?”
“T-Twilight,” Fluttershy stuttered, “Is that really you?”
“In the, err, whatever,” she said. She looked up at the ceiling of the cave, her eyes wide. “Bats!” she screamed and backed out of the waterfall in a sudden panic. Fluttershy stuck her head out again. She couldn't believe what she saw in the swirling smoke outside. Twilight was stumbling in the hock-deep water, her hindquarters glowing white hot and her tail on fire. Steam rose around her legs.
“What's going on, Twilight,” Fluttershy asked quietly, then coughed, choking on the thickening smoke.
“Oh this,” Twilight said, looking embarrassed, “This is nothing.” She plopped her butt in the water, kicking up a big cloud of steam. Fluttershy withdrew into the cave. Somewhere far away thunder crashed.
• • •
“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash screamed. She drove the massive stormcloud she was pushing faster and faster toward the fire. Her wildly thrumming wings threatened to throw Spike off her back. He held tight to her mane.
“It's okay, Rainbow,” he tried to say, but his words were lost in the wind.
Teams of pegasi pushed great gray clouds toward the fire from all directions. They practiced the aerial dance they usually did in bringing in a storm but much faster than usual. Lightning flashed all around them. Even the upside-down cloud had been righted. As the clouds roared into the rising smoke they poured out their water, sending up columns of steam.
Spike tumbled off Rainbow Dash's back and grabbed the end of her tail in mid-fall. Rain pelted him and hailstones bounced off his head spikes. “Hang on Twilight!” he heard the pegasus yell far in front of him. Suddenly the ground was coming closer and closer as she dove into the rain until they were falling with the raindrops. Her wings spread and caught a hot updraft. Spike swung wildly on the end of her tail, sweeping through the top of a burning tree in the middle of the downpour.
• • •
Twilight curled up tight in the tiny wet space. The snakes had backed off and the bats were hidden in the shadows in the top of the cave. They still gave her the shudders. Fluttershy put her wing around the sooty purple unicorn. Her horn glowed for a moment and a cool wind swept through the cave, driving out the smoke that was encroaching.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Fluttershy said, “It was getting a little stuffy in here.”
“I'll say,” Twilight responded, “I don't think you or your animals would have lasted much longer.” She noticed a chicken with bark wrapped around its eyes like a blindfold tucked under Fluttershy's other wing. “What the heck are you doing out here anyway?” she asked.
“Oh my,” she said, “I couldn't leave all the animals out here. They can't all take care of themselves, especially when there's a fire.” She looked down at the chicken and nuzzled its little red comb. “The animals of the Everfree Forest never have anypony to take care of them.”
“Aargh, Fluttershy, Ponies don't have control over the forest. That's why it's called the freaking Everfree Forest!”
Fluttershy tried to hide her muzzle behind her mane. “I'm sorry,” she said.
“Err, I guess I have some explaining to do too,” Twilight said after a long pause.
“I didn't want to pry,” Fluttershy squeaked from under her forelock.
“Well, um,” Twilight started, “It's not something that comes up too often but I guess I'm a little unusual.” She held up her hoof. A thin rim of blue flame sprouted from the edge then grew to a good size flame. The warmth of the fire filled the little cave as it fluttered in the thin breeze that seemed to come from nowhere.
• • •
Pegasi with dark clouds swept back and forth over the blackened forest. Some squeezed and kicked small clouds over tree stumps that were still smoking. Rainbow Dash, with Spike back in place on her back, was calling out for Twilight. “Rainbow,” he yelled, hanging on to her sooty tangled mane, “She'll be okay!”
They swept upstream toward a little waterfall where dark water filled with burnt sticks and ashes poured into a turbid pool. From above they could both see something yellow emerging from the falling water. Rainbow Dash went into a dive, headed straight toward the pool. “Fluttershy!” she cried, “What are you doing here?” Rainbow crashed into Fluttershy, sending her tumbling into the water. Something slipped from under her wing, its serpentine body squirming in the water.
Twilight poked her head out from behind the waterfall looking a bit shy. Her purple coat was filthy and streaked with soot. Spike plunked into the water next to her. “So, how's it going, Twilight?” he asked.
“Twilight!” Rainbow screamed, and crashed into her too. “You're allright!”
• • •
A blue pony with a pink mane poured soapy water over Twilight's head as a pink pony with a blue mane poured more soapy water over Fluttershy. “So, as you can see from this chart,” Twilight said, blowing a few bubbles, “Earth Ponies correspond to the element of Earth, Pegasi are ponies of the air and unicorns control the element of magic. There are also sea ponies, who are ponies of the water. In ancient times there were also fire ponies.”
Twilight used a long pointer clutched in her teeth to flip the page on her easel to a picture of a scary looking fire stallion. “No one knows what happened to them but some ponies can still manifest the element of fire. I just happen to be one of them. It's a bonus on top of regular magic.”
“So you can lahk burst into flames?” Applejack asked, “And you're fireproof?”
“Pretty much,” she responded, “And it's totally under control.”
“Ha, not always, right Twilight?” Spike giggled.
“Only when you get on my nerves.” The other ponies giggled.
“That was so amazing!” Rainbow Dash called from the massage table where a cute stallion was massaging her wing muscles. “You made that fire tornado and then just dove right into the flames! You've got to help me do fire tricks!”
• • •
Twilight circled around Pinkie Pie who was sitting in a big hole. Pinky was confusing her, but that wasn't unusual. “What are you doing, Pinkie?” she asked. Pinkie looked up, a big clump of turf on the top of her head.
“I'm an Earth Pony, right?” she asked.
“Umm, yeah.”
“So,” she said, digging deeper into the ground, “Why can't I make earthquakes? Or turn into a giant dirt pony or something?” She suddenly stood of her hind legs with her hooves bent and made a monster face. “Raaar,” she said.
“I think that's a different kind of element, Pinkie.”
